Quote of the Day: David Culp
Sometimes the most memorable garden moments are the most fleeting, as when a single leaf, backlit by the sun, is transformed from opaque to a translucent tracery of veins more beautiful than any stained glass. I hate to leave my garden for any length of time because it means I miss these moments, or the more predictable blooms of favorite plants.
David Culp from The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage
A couple weeks ago I was looking through my photos of the old garden back in Ohio. It’s bittersweet for sure, I’m sad that I’ll be missing so many wonderful moments this spring. I’ll be missing the thousands of tulips, narcissus, bluebells, crocuses and other flowering bulbs I planted. The 15 varieties of peonies and 30 varieties of hydrangeas will also bloom without me seeing them. At least I have thousands of images of my old garden.
What plant or flower is most memorable to you?
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Library Learning and a Podcast
On Tuesday, Mr Chiots and I headed to the Belfast Free Library to listen to Lauren and Bill Errickson’s seminar, The Permaculture Process: Creating an Edible Landscape. Not only did we attend to listen and learn, we actually recorded their talk for Cultivate Simple, our podcast about all things gardening and simple living.
Topics of discussion:
- setting goals for your property
- promote healthy ecology, wildlife, and pollinators
- minimize landscape inputs
- generate income
- evaluating and assessing your existing landscape
- how permaculture principles can be used to expand existing landscape assets while reducing “trouble” spots
Lauren and Bill Errickson own and operate Singing Nettle Farm and Conscious Elements Permaculture in Brooks. They both hold M.S. degrees in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire and Advanced Permaculture Design Certificates from Humustacia Gardens. For further information, visit their website: www.singingnettlefarm.com
If you’re interested in permaculture and how to incorporate it’s methods in your home garden this is the talk for you. Tune in the Cultivate Simple this coming Monday to hear what Bill & Lauren have to say.
Do you ever attend local workshops & seminars about gardening?
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The Organized Gardener
The longer I garden, the more I realize the need to be organized and to keep good records. If you only have a small garden, it’s not as important as if you plant a wide variety of vegetables and try to incorporate succession planting along with fall/winter gardening. As I sit down and spend time planning out the 2013 edible gardens, I realize there’s a lot of organization that needs to take place.
I’ve been working on coming up with a year-long calendar to make sure I know when to seed all my various crops for production throughout the year. Not only do I need to think about the spring/summer garden, I’m trying to plan my garden so I have greens to harvest in winter and roots in the cellar as well. There are also cover crops to think about, that need to be worked into the crop rotation to improve soil and mitigate disease/pest issues. It’s all getting very complex.
Each evening, I spend time with books and charts planning the entire gardening year. My next step will be drawing out a big garden plan and figuring out where everything will be planted. I must say, I don’t mind this side of it, I rather enjoy that it gives me something to do during the winter months.
What’s your biggest organizational challenge when it comes to gardening?
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Quote of the Day: David Culp
“I need to add that patience is truly a virtue, because time is one of a gardener’s greatest allies. With the passage of time, plants grow and our instincts and abilities as gardeners mature and improve. Nothing happens in an instant in the garden; beautiful moments always unfold on their own schedule, in their own sweet time. We may savor the sweetness and remember it for the rest of our lives. But for anyone who loves gardens, it also helps to love being a gardener, since it is only the continuum of the day-to-day work that makes those moments possible”
David Culp in The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage
Lately, Mr Chiots and I have been talking a lot about patience when it comes to gardening. It’s especially important when you have a new and exciting space and lots of ideas. We know we want to put in a small orchard here, with pears, apples, plums and maybe a few other types of fruit. Eventually, there will be long hedgerows filled with native and beneficial species. There will be a pond for the ducks and a greenhouse for the winter.
Mr Chiots and I are, by nature, jump in with both feet kind of people. Hard work doesn’t scare us and neither does failure. While that is often a very good trait, it needs to be tempered with patience in some situations, this is one of those cases. Through much deliberation, we decided to wait at least a year to embark on any major garden plantings and changes.
We’ll spend this next year watching the gardens unfold, noting varieties of plants, the movement of the sun, the flow of the water. Care will be taken in improving and remineralizing the soil in the areas we think the orchard might fit. Being patient will benefit us in the long run, our trees will grow faster and stronger if we take time to choose the perfect spot, the right varieties and work diligently at improving the soil.
Have you learned patience through gardening?
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Happy Birthday Mr Chiots!
Join me in wishing Mr Chiots a happy birthday. We’re not big on celebrating birthdays around here, no presents are exchanged or anything like that. Generally I’ll cook a good meal and make Mr Chiots some cookies or cake (that’s enough present for him).
Mr Chiots is an unseen force on this blog. He doesn’t write, but he takes care of all of the behind the scenes stuff. He makes sure the server is up & running, the software is up to date, he makes changes when they are needed. He really does keep the blog rolling, without him I probably would have quit long ago when the first server crash happened.
He roasts our coffee and keeps my cup full and keeps our freezer stocked with venison to eat. He cut wood to keep us warm, changes the oil to keep the cars running, goes with me on long hikes, keeps me laughing and is always willing to lend a hand in the garden if I need him.
Join me in wishing Mr Chiots a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. He is a valuable part of this blog and I certainly appreciate all the hard work he puts in behind the scenes!
